bad leg on newly hatched baby

[Avonshire]

So this chick pipped down low, took 30+ hours to hatch and needed help getting out. Its membrane was stuck to it and so I gently peeled it off and then left it to hatch the rest of the way. It is sticky looking and scrawny. It can not stand well. It uses its bad leg for balance. The joint where the leg bends is swollen and where the good leg has some tension/resistance when I move it, the bad leg is just limp. It can stand and hobble around. The other chicks are pretty abusive to it and so I have it separated but where they can still se each other. Any ideas or hints on what is wrong and if there is anything I can do for it.

 

[mnferalkitty]

can you post a pic of the legs? I have let some chicks with curled toes live and they get along fine, but I have had no luck fixing bad legs so I cull those chicks

 

[Avonshire]

ughhh I did not want to hear that. I will post some in the morning00if it makes it. Thanks! I have one with curled toes too and it is fine--curled toes and all.

 

[fried green eggs]

Don't give up on it without trying to help it. I had a chick born that couldn't use it's one leg and the foot was turned sideways. It layed on it's side or back and if I set it on it's stomach it would kick it's good leg and end up on its side or back again. I did physical therapy on it muliply times the first day and would hold it so it's bad retracted leg would just hang and let garvity stretch the leg out. It's foot was still cuved sideways but one problem at a time. By the end of the first day it could straighten out it's leg a little easier but, it would scoot around on it's butt. I made light weight little shoes and taped it's bad foot into the shape it should be. I also made a cardboard shoe for it's good foot - just so it be even and have to try to use it's feet. By the end of the 2nd day it was walking with limp - but it was walking and had lost both it's shoes. I put it in with other bigger chicks and by the 4th day it was walking with no limp and 2 normal looking and feet. By the 7th day it was running and flapping it's wings imitating the older chicks. It is a beautiful little blue orp that now runs to my hand in the brooder for me to pick it up.

 

[Avonshire]

Thanks for the encouragement! It is doing better today. It is awfully scrawny and I am still keeping it in chickie jail because the other ones run it over. The joint is no longer swollen and it is using its leg better and better! I was half expecting it to be dead this morning so it has lived another day!!! I never did get pictures--I hated to stress it out!

 

[fried green eggs]

Glad to hear it's doing better.

If it is walking better it might be good to put it back in with the others because, they will force it to move around more - even if it's just to move out of their way. Mine was still limping when I put it back in with the others and it really helped it get straightened out fast. The others will help teach it how and when to eat too.Mine wasn't eating well by itself. Good Luck with your little baby.

 

[Avonshire]

When I clean out their brooder I put them all together and they seem to really push her around so I was thinking maybe I should wait another day. She is still favoring that leg though. She is drinking plenty and pooping. She is not eating as much as I would like though. Maybe I will try her in with the others and just observe. I know that chickens are a survival of the fittest society and I don't want them to kill her. Thank you for your help!!

 

[fried green eggs]

I don't think the survival of the fittest really kicks in with young chicks - as long as there is enough room,food,water and room under and away from the heat source. The chicks I put my little limping chick "Baby" in with, where 4 times bigger than it. When the little chick was just a week old - I had to move them all out to my garage brooder for more room for the older chicks. During the day it was 85 degs so I didn't have a brooder light on. By 11 pm when I went out to check on them in the evening. I didn't know it had gotten so cold out. It had gotten down to 55 degs and when I turned on the brooder light and looked in - they were all sleeping and looking quite comfy in the corner and "Baby" was in the middle of the big chicks and totally being taen care of by all of them.